Dramatic CCTV footage of Lahore blasts

Lahore: Dramatic close circuit camera footage has been found of the double suicide bombing attack of a popular shrine in Lahore, Pakistan. (WATCH: Dramatic CCTV footage of bombing)

The blasts late on Thursday, killed at least 42 people and wounded 180 others in the second major attack in Lahore in a month, a top city official said. The attackers struck as thousands of people were visiting the Data Darbar shrine, where a famous Sufi saint is buried. (Read: 42 killed in Lahore shrine blasts)

CCTV footage of what is believed to be both of the blasts, later aired on Geo TV. The Pakistani television channel showed footage of what is thought to be the suicide bombers circled in red. (In pics: Suicide blasts at Data Darbar shrine)

The footage shows crowds of people and a man believed to be a bomber, circled in red. There is a blast. Another man, believed to be the second suicide bomber, also circled in red, walks down steps. There is another blast.

The CCTV has also recorded the moments after the blast, of rescue officials, ambulances arriving and injured people.

Advertisement

Lahore has experienced a growing number of attacks as Taliban fighters along the northwest border with Afghanistan have teamed up with militant groups in the country's heartland once supported by the government.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. But Islamist extremists consider Sufis to be heretics and have often targeted them, as well as Shiites and other minority groups.

Advertisement

The first suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a large underground room where visitors sleep and wash themselves before praying, said Khusro Pervez, a top government official in Lahore.

The attack occurred as volunteers were handing out food to people visiting the shrine, according to a senior police official in Lahore.

Advertisement

Minutes later, a second bomber detonated his explosives in a large yard upstairs as people tried to flee the first attack, Pervez said.

Some reports said there were three blasts, not two. Police also initially said they were investigating the source of a third blast but concluded that there were only two suicide bombers, whose heads were later found, said Pervez.

Advertisement

At least 25 of those wounded in the attacks are in critical condition, said Pervez.
An eye witness told AP Television how the attackers struck as many at the shrine were deep in prayer.

Demonstrators gathered outside the shrine in the hours after the attack, protesting the security lapse that allowed the bombings to occur. Police fired into the air and threw rocks to disperse the protesters.

Advertisement

The government has been criticised for lacking the will to crack down on militants in Punjab, many of whom are part of now-banned groups started with government support in the 1980s and '90s to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan and pressure India. (With AP inputs)